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MOVIE REVIEW: Dumplin

My Review

Dumplin’ was so amazing and for me it was one of the best movies of 2018! It was fun, inspiring, cute, and I loved it’s focus on friendship and being the person you truly want to be no matter what other people think. Plus it has an awesome soundtrack of Dolly Parton songs.

Willowdean, or Dumplin’ as her mother calls her, is a teenager who has spent her life growing up in the spotlight of her mother’s former beauty pageant success. As a plus-size teenager Williowdean bonded more with her aunt Lucy, who was also plus-size, rather than her mom who was so focused on beauty pageants. Will is feisty, proud, and confident, at least on the outside and I think that Danielle Macdonald did a phenomenal job of playing her.

There’s a small love story centered on Willowdean but what I really enjoyed was how much the movie focused on friendship and accepting yourself as you are. Not for a cute boy or for being welcomed by the cool kids but because you can’t live your best life if you don’t learn to accept yourself. Losing her beloved aunt really throws Will and makes her realize that she’s isolated herself from other people, especially her mother. I loved watching Will rebuild a relationship with her mom as they both come to see who the other really is.

With a wonderful cast of supporting characters, Willowdean begins to make more friendships and stop judging others for what she only sees on the surface. I loved watching Willow, Millie (another plus-size girl), and Hannah (a punky feminist) tackle the beauty pageant competition and through it all, find themselves. I also really appreciated that the movie didn’t capitalize on the stereotype of the mean pageant girl. This wasn’t a movie where other girls had to be put down in order to make Willow look better but instead a movie that focused on seeing people for who they really were no matter what their personal interests were.

I started watching Dumplin’ because everyone else was talking about and I ended up finding myself captivated almost from the beginning. I laughed, I smiled, and I choked up because this movie really hits on what it means to be happy for who you really are.